Paris is often in upheaval when we return from a trip. That was certainly the case in mid-December 2019. The government wanted to raise the retirement age from sixty-two to sixty-four, and the French people were not having it. Everyone was on strike, it seemed. Getting to town from the airport was a nightmare. Still, we had the feeling we were back at the center of the world. I felt the same way when I arrived in London a few days later, and when I continued on to Tokyo and Hong Kong and Sydney. The people I saw there felt it too. I didn’t poll them; I could just tell. It was in their walk, in
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